Posted on 01/27/2007 1:36:11 PM PST by tpaine
By Vin Suprynowicz
For years, Garry Watson, 49, of little Bunker, Mo., (population 390) had been squabbling with town officials over the sewage line easement which ran across his property to the adjoining, town-operated sewage lagoon.
Residents say officials grew dissatisfied with their existing easement, and announced they were going to excavate a new sewer line across the landowner's property. Capt. Chris Ricks of the Missouri Highway Patrol reports Watson's wife, Linda, was served with "easement right-of-way papers" on Sept. 6. She gave the papers to Watson when he got home at 5 a.m. the next morning from his job at a car battery recycling plant northeast of Bunker. Watson reportedly went to bed for a short time, but arose about 7 a.m. when the city work crew arrived.
"He told them 'If you come on my land, I'll kill you,' " Bunker resident Gregg Tivnan told me last week. "Then the three city workers showed up with a backhoe, plus a police officer. They'd sent along a cop in a cop car to guard the workers, because they were afraid there might be trouble. Watson had gone inside for a little while, but then he came out and pulled his SKS (semi-automatic rifle) out of his truck, steadied it against the truck, and he shot them."
Killed in the September 7 incident, from a range of about 85 yards, were Rocky B. Gordon, 34, a city maintenance man, and David Thompson, 44, an alderman who supervised public works. City maintenance worker Delmar Eugene Dunn, 51, remained in serious but stable condition the following weekend.
Bunker police Officer Steve Stoops, who drove away from the scene after being shot, was treated and released from a hospital for a bullet wound to his arm and a graze to the neck.
Watson thereupon kissed his wife goodbye, took his rifle, and disappeared into the woods, where his body was found two days later -- dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Following such incidents, the local papers are inevitably filled with well-meaning but mawkish doggerel about the townsfolk "pulling together" and attempting to "heal" following the "tragedy." There are endless expressions of frustration, pretending to ask how such an otherwise peaceful member of the community could "just snap like that."
In fact, the supposedly elusive explanation is right before our eyes.
"He was pushed," Clarence Rosemann -- manager of the local Bunker convenience store, who'd done some excavation work for Watson -- told the big-city reporters from St. Louis. Another area resident, who didn't want to be identified, told the visiting newsmen, "Most people are understanding why Garry Watson was upset. They are wishing he didn't do it, but they are understanding why he did it."
You see, to most of the people who work in government and the media these days -- especially in our urban centers -- "private property" is a concept out of some dusty, 18th century history book. Oh, sure, "property owners" are allowed to live on their land, so long as they pay rent to the state in the form of "property taxes."
But an actual "right" to be let alone on our land to do whatever we please -- always providing we don't actually endanger the lives or health of our neighbors?
Heavens! If we allowed that, how would we enforce all our wonderful new "environmental protection" laws, or the "zoning codes," or the laws against growing hemp or tobacco or distilling whisky without a license, or any of the endless parade of other malum prohibitum decrees which have multiplied like swarms of flying ants in this nation over the past 87 years?
What does it mean to say we have any "rights" or "freedoms" at all, if we cannot peacefully enjoy that property which we buy with the fruits of our labors?
In his 1985 book "Takings," University of Chicago Law Professor Richard Epstein wrote that, "Private property gives the right to exclude others without the need for any justification.
Indeed, it is the ability to act at will and without need for justification within some domain which is the essence of freedom, be it of speech or of property."
"Unfortunately," replies James Bovard, author of the book "Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen," "federal law enforcement agents and prosecutors are making private property much less private. ...
Park Forest, Ill. in 1994 enacted an ordinance that authorizes warrantless searches of every single-family rental home by a city inspector or police officer, who are authorized to invade rental units 'at all reasonable times.' ... Federal Judge Joan Gottschall struck down the searches as unconstitutional in 1998, but her decision will have little or no effect on the numerous other localities that authorize similar invasions of privacy."
We are now involved in a war in this nation, a last-ditch struggle in which the other side contends only the king's men are allowed to use force or the threat of force to push their way in wherever they please, and that any peasant finally rendered so desperate as to employ the same kind of force routinely employed by our oppressors must surely be a "lone madman" who "snapped for no reason." No, we should not and do not endorse or approve the individual choices of folks like Garry Watson. But we are still obliged to honor their memories and the personal courage it takes to fight and die for a principle, even as we lament both their desperate, misguided actions ... and the systematic erosion of our liberties which gave them rise.
This guy is misinformed. Here's a quote from a "dusty, 18th century history book":
"Men did not make the earth... It is the value of the improvements only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property... Every proprietor owes to the community a ground rent for the land which he holds." - Thomas Paine
It is what happens to families on both sides in a war. War is hell.
Anyone who could see this issue as a war, has a screw loose, just like the man who shot those utility workers. My husband retired from the military after 20 years of honorable service. He knows what real war is about... and I'm sure this ain't it. I am a firm believer in protecting the rights of a property owner, but this killing makes no sense absolutely. It is TOTALLY, not G-dly.
--And that is what other people in the area said. They also said he was pushed.--
One person identified as "told to a big city reporter". Which reporter? Which media? Is this fact?
Very well said.
--One thing is for sure, if more people did it, we would all enjoy more freedom. In a real way, one could say he gave his life for our freedom.--
If more people did this, we would lose all our freedoms for a civil society cannot exist if it condones murder.
You haven't noticed that America has been invaded by a government. It's everywhere! They put up street lights so they can see you at night. They build roads to get to you faster. And they steal our raw sewage -- who knows what they do with it!
When someone decides to operate as an employer, they must respect the rights of their employees.
--You gotta kill the grunts in the foxholes to get to Hitler.--
I am surprised to here you refer to Bush that way.
Thanks for the additional details. Clearly, Watson was a nutcase.
And you are right, the piece by Suprynowicz is sloppy and deceptive.
Regards,
LH
--Look, stick to the subject at hand, if you want to continue the debate with me. The fact is there was obviously some kind of problem with the sewer line, which the city wouldn't fix.--
Kind of hard to fix the problem when the guy won't let you on the easement and ends up murdering your workers ...
--If you want to split hairs and launch into red herring diversions, that's fine...I have better things to do. If you want to debate property rights and the logic or illogic of what Mr. Watson did, please stick to that subject.--
I understand. You feel free to make up 'facts' in your support for this murderer but when I call you on you this, I am splitting hairs. Good one.
Thomas Paine was a collectivist, a precursor to communism.
"what tyranny
he bought a piece of property that included an easement. if he didn't like that easement, he should neverr have bought the property."
the questions remain.: was the man insane? did he overreact? was he psychotic? what happened between him and the authorities? was the easement in some way abused or arrogated by the authorities?
(in old soviet union all authority was always correct...and simple statement always sufficed for explanation.)
--It is what happens to families on both sides in a war. War is hell.--
You sound like one of those radial fundamentalists.
radical.
--UpAllNight wrote:
What was flawed about the 'authorities'?
Both parties were absolutists about their imagined powers..
Owning land doesn't give you godlike powers over your peers.
Nor does administrating our laws give you godlike powers over your peers.
We've written a Constitution to guide us about abusing power. Amazing how so few of us admit we are ALL bound to honor the document.
This isn't difficult to figure out. This thing was probably going on for awhile. He couldn't afford a lawyer to make his case, neither could he make his case adequately by himself. So, he went home and stewed and the thing became a huge issue in his mind. Finally, it just overtook him.
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